Facebook use is linked to higher intelligence in teenagers. Researchers found that the longer the duration of Facebook membership, the better the test scores in working memory, verbal IQ, and spelling.

As you get ready with new backpacks, pencils, and other important school supplies, don’t forget the important learning tool—Working Memory.
Working Memory is our ability to work with information. It helps students focus to complete classroom activities, and inhibit distracting information, and keep track of where they are in a multistep task.

When it comes to learning success, does it matter if a student is a verbalizer or visualizer? What about whether they are a wholistic thinker or an analytic thinker? Find out in a study looking at test scores of high school students.

A recent article in the NYT on testing for giftedness suggests that the test scores let in the well-prepared students rather than those who are “gifted”. This made me wonder: What are we testing when we test for "giftedness"? Test taking skills or an ability to think creatively and innovatively?

Working memory has also been described as a ‘controller’, a cognitive resource that can keep a goal in mind, bring in cognitive resources from different parts of the brain, and also manage incoming information.

Working memory is critical for many activities at school, from complex subjects such as reading comprehension, mental arithmetic, and word problems to simple tasks like copying from the board and navigating the halls. We have a limited space for processing information, and the size of various individuals' working memory capacity can vary greatly.